Melbourne's Cable Trams

The Melbourne Cable Tramway System
By Neville Govett between 1933 and 1939
provided by
Heritage Victoria
www2.delwp.vic.gov.au/search?...

[@MarkHenstridge]

Praise to the Late Mr. Neville Goveet for capturing that period of life in Melbourne. Having the notion to put it on film for future generations to see his brilliant home movie and thank you to other like-minded people like Mr. Govett.

[@pisstinpete4700]

As a child in the 1960s l remember my father,when driving the family car around a corner, advising everyone to”mind the curve”.now I get it.

[@iand.richardson878]

Fascinating video report. My great-grandfather, Arthur Cox, was one of the first gripmen on Melbourne's cable trams.

[@tfdruid]

I live near the old engine house on the corner of Queensberry and Abbotsford streets, North Melbourne. A few years ago roadworks uncovered the only known remaining section of cable-tram network. The roadwork was stopped, and the archaeologists came in. It was fascinating watching them unearth this recent, but already forgotten (no-one had known there was ANY remaining cable under the road) piece of Melbourne history.

[@vsvnrg3263]

the famous druid, it may not be the only place. back in the late 70's mates of mine were involved in doing brickwork at the corner of chapel st and toorak road (i think it was that intersection-the old capital bakery). they told me how the job was on both sides of one of the roads and they used a tunnel to get from one side of the road to the other. they weren't crawling on their stomachs to get across. they said it looked like all the equipment was still down there.

[@charlesbrain3872]

vsv nrg the capitol bakeries building was an old cable tram engine building (demolished last year).

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@charlesbrain3872 ,that would explain the tunnels i was told about.

[@tramalan]

Didn't they also find, recently, one of the large wheels that steered the cable round a curve?

[@paulkyriakopoulos3444]

Melbourne your a grand old beautiful city I'm lucky I grew up in this city.

[@GlennThompson]

In the 1950s an old lady at Mernda had an old Melbourne cable car as her sewing room. She was Mrs. Hayes whom Hayes Rd Mernda is named after. At that time her husband was dead but he was Padre Hays, Church of England I think. His old church was near the corner of Schotters Rd and Bridge Inn Rd Mernda. It was an old wooden structure and on a windy day in about 1958, while a friend and I were watching, it fell over. My sister rescued some of the old brass vases and paraphernalia from the wreckage. As a child, I often sat in that cable car after chopping firewood for her.

[@johnferguson4089]

What an interesting video. I always wondered how the cable trams worked. Many thanks to the late Neville Govett for having the foresight to film this in so much detail and superb quality. Thanks to Heritage Victoria for providing this video for sharing, it's much appreciated.

[@heathertruskinger6214]

Alf Twentyman and his wife lived in Bastings St Northcote. I lived a few houses away in James St. I was lucky enough as a child to spend many weekends playing on the cable trams he still had in his backyard. They were on tracks, and he would often pull them out .I recall a Dummy car and a closed in car. There may have been 1 or 2 more as well. But that was all the way back in the 1960's

[@TheHsan22]

Knew him well, lived a bit closer, and played on those same trams ;)

[@tfdruid]

A short section of track was discovered during roadworks in 2007. It's in North Melbourne, and runs along Abbotsford St between Spencer Street and the old engine house on Queensberry St. After the archaeologists did a survey of the site it was covered up again to preserve it, so all you can see is the median strip covered in wood chips, rather than the grass and street trees that were originally planned for it.

[@professorpatpending8731]

My father, born in 1919, told me about the cable trams that he often travelled on prior to world war two. Excellent footage and commentary.

[@juliekemp419]

My Dad was also born in 1919. Trams were so much a part of daily conversation and chat even for me b in 1948. My grandparents on both sides talked of them frequently - "catch the ..." "get of near the stop at ..." I loved listening to my "elders".

[@JWMcLay]

​@@juliekemp419So do I, I'm only 40, and trying to absorb and understand as much as I can. I enjoy hearing personal experiences, reflections and history in all it's layers, well at least some of the layers I mean

[@juliekemp419]

When i see that very special Melbourne facade of Flinders Street Station i am wistful and wondrous - it reminds me of the Luna Park entrance. I was born in 1948 and had a busy Anglo-Celtic extended family who were always mentioning 'the trams' on a daily basis as they lived in suburban Melbourne, mainly on the south eastern lines. Chapel St, Prahran, Tivoli Road, oh so many more short forms relating to daily travel. Very intense. Marvellous human childhood and young adult sentiments revived - THANK YOU!

[@cherylpurdue888]

Wow,this was a real eye opener, how things have changed so much😮

[@grahamcockerill2406]

Absolutely brilliant I'm only 62 so was so interesting to watch, amazing more people weren't injured or killed watching them driving and walking in front of trams and car's 😕

[@jamesgovett3225]

Neville was very passionate about melbournes trams and its history, l was lucky enough to meet him several times many decades ago regarding our own familys history as his grandfather was also my great great grandfather a pioneer of Australia who landed in hobart in 1824 and purchasing John Batmans property in Ben Lomond Tasmania before coming to the mainland several years later, Neville lived his later life in Queensland.

[@horribleguts]

Interesting story. I will pass it on to my Mum who was an architectural historian with the Government until recently. She had me transfer the video.

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@horribleguts ,good thing you obeyed your mother. your mother knows best.

[@xr6lad]

I remember for years until fairly recently there’s was a piece of track at the top of Bourke St with Spencer that still had the cable slot in the middle of track for several metres.

[@tph2558]

Wow what a brilliant piece of history These cable cars sure put San Francisco Cable Cars in the limelight Sadly they never kept a line or two open would have been a fantastic tourist attraction

[@CowboyJojosAdventures]

Brilliant Video and wonderful Footage. Thank you Neville.

[@Leopold5100]

I have only ever heard of Melbourne's cable cars; thank you, very interesting.

[@jimmarshallman6300]

LOVED this .... Always wondered how they worked ...... :)

[@garynewton1263]

Richmond had a Cable tram depot on the corner of Bridge rd and River street. I remember us kids going in there a few times in the early 1980s. There were a few old wooden teams stored in there back then. It was a Cable house and the infrastructure was still there visible in the floor.

[@TheHsan22]

Also the building on SE cnr Gertrude and Nicolson Sts opposite the Exhibition Building. My mother used to tell me about "the big wheel on the floor" whenever we went passed.

[@garynewton1263]

@@TheHsan22 Yeah same big wheel was there in the Richmond engine house too around 1982/3. Inner Melbourne had charm and personality right up to the 90s I think. Then suburbs like Richmond, Carlton, Sth Melb, Fitzroy, Prahran and Brunswick changed.

[@amandab8739]

Thank you!

[@bigbrotherrocks06]

WOW talk about a history lesson. Thanks for putting this up. I've shared the video on my facebook page.

[@horribleguts]

Thanks. A large and fascinating system. Check out some of the material at heritage Victoria for info on tram-related places. www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/heritage/publications-and-research/thematic-and-typological-studies/tram-heritage-study

[@horribleguts]

Thanks. I mentioned these comments to the person from Heritage Victoria who gave me the video. There will soon be a study released about the remaining infrastructure. There is a page mentioning the same Abbotford Street dig.

[@HMTMelbournePTGal]

Amazing and informative video. We have come a long way.

[@hugocortes3680]

BEAUTIFUL VIDEO, THANK YOU FOR SHARING! :)

[@acohen1980]

fantastic post...thanx

[@pamelalawrence8934]

Where did they make the cable cars? Were they all bought out from England? How did they fit on the sailing ships in the 1800's?

[@TramcarTrev]

Thanks for posting this,

[@geoffreyhansen8543]

The cable trams are fascinating.

[@darylcheshire1618]

Fascinating video, I wondered how cable trams changed points. Until a few years ago there was a short length of cable tram tracks on the corner of Spencer and Bourke Streets, this was removed when the new left and right tracks were installed. Another problem was how did they cross train tracks? Apparently the railway companies were less than cooperative in allowing cable trams to cross their tracks.

[@stumarston6812]

3:31 This is what I look like at work.

[@swimminlane3566]

Brilliant thanks

[@mcilrain]

The man staring at the cable looks like he wants to die. 3:33

[@medullaoblongata9670]

mcilrain he looks like he needs a few ‘Giggle Pills’

[@RexBarca]

I had a job like that at MM cabless in 91. I was lucky as I had long hair at the time, i could hide the walkman speakers in my ear muffs which helped while away the 12 hour shifts.

[@williamrubinstein3442]

Amazing!

[@ThePaulv12]

Gertrude Street remains largely unchanged today. I recognize it in this old film no problems at all.

[@anthonylee5834]

thank you micheal great

[@MuzzahA1]

Hi Michael I just got a copy of a 1988 documentary called "Commuting by Cable" about the Melbourne cable trams. It has all this footage in it and interviews/ commentary from the guy who filmed the footage plus runs for just under 1 hour. VHS only.

[@MuzzahA1]

You can still get it from the library, have a look at the National Library of Australia. trove.nla.gov.au/work/22652121?selectedversion=NBD9593896

[@horribleguts]

Been a while since i watched a video tape. How things changed. Perhaps I could view it at the Library.

[@jimmarshallman6300]

@@horribleguts "OLD"technology now .... ROFL!

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@horribleguts ,our government public service should put it up on this youtube thingy.

[@indriigunason9017]

I bought a DVD copy on eBay a few months ago.

[@djackman4229]

Bit of a crime to have turned bustling Swanston Street into a mall - it was a great treat to drive down in the old days.

[@vsvnrg3263]

d jackman, i'm a car head. however, we really need to loosen their grip on our way of life. including supposed green electric cars which just transfer the pollution to where the power stations are. it doesn't matter how clean the things run they are still using up oxygen and roads and freeways are forever expanding stealing our space. i know someone who lost their beloved family home when the south eastern freeway was extended through malvern.

[@RexBarca]

May have been fun on a summer's evening, on a winter morning, not so much.

[@vsvnrg3263]

back in the early 80's i worked down near no.32 south wharf near where holden used to be. old cable trams started turning up on the wharf. in good condition they seemed to be i might add. one of our co-workers went over to enquire what was going on.. he was told the trams were being backloaded, when there was space, to usa. a tram might be waiting on the dock for a few days then it would disappear. then another one would turn up. some stayed on the wharf for more than a month. i think a total of 5 or 6 disappeared overseas from here. they all appeared to be in good condition and of various colour schemes. the different colours indicated different routes. they must have been stored in a shed somewhere.

[@medullaoblongata9670]

vsv nrg I bet someone (????) made a few bucks on that. Thanks for sharing

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@medullaoblongata9670 ,glad you appreciate my comment. it was probably above board. the trams were going back to where they came from. they were made in usa. and i can appreciate that they have been put to good use in san francisco. they would have been welcome additions to any australian tram museum. the fact that they were stored for decades and not scrapped is rather amazing.

[@johnd8892]

Sounds like when they were withdrawing W class electric trams from service. Built in Australia but old ones found buyers in the USA for tourist service. Seattle was one. Made it to a Frasier episode once. Elton John bought one. Another I saw in an English tram museum. Probably a list on the net of where they are around the world. Most other withdrawn ones were burnt. Replaced by Z class then A class new model trams around this time. Only a very few cable trams survived after the 1940 closure. Much smaller, usually four wheeled trams.

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@johnd8892 , the difference is that the w's were only recently withdrawn. these cable trams were withdrawn more than 40 years earlier. and there were far more w's than cable trams. there must be people out there who knows where and how many were stored in a secure location. as i said, they were in excellent condition from what i saw as i drove past. and being that the trams were visible from lorimer street, lots of people, including tram enthusiasts must have seen them.

[@johnd8892]

@@vsvnrg3263 would have been documented if they were cable trams. Where was the unknown location worth storing cable trams over forty years? America also loved tram like bodies on a bus chassis, called it a trolley and the tourists flocked to it. So much cheaper than tracks etc.

[@juandalton9172]

Brisbane 2013. I was in Melbourne a couple of years ago and was dissappointed that I could not find the tracks. On my return home I found out on the internet that the tracks and cable slot was covered over due to roadworks. Has it all been uncovered. I walked the area. Please anwer me. John D'Alton. ============================

[@johnd8892]

The remaining foot or so of cable tracks survived until about 1988 on Bourke Street near Spencer Street when it was torn up so the Bourke Street tram could go round the corner for the so called light rail track to st Kilda and port Melbourne. So destroyed by tram expansion.

[@vsvnrg3263]

i had an incredibly mind numbing job many years ago filling 1 litre bottles with peanut oil for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. at 3:34, i've just found a worse job.

[@RexBarca]

Hahahahaja, we have all been there

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@RexBarca , it sounds like you have too. but there are a lot of people who haven't.

[@tfdruid]

Having real trouble getting 'reply' to work...

[@christinejackson3922]

My grandma told me once that she remembered when the trams were drawn by horses is this true ?

[@jonathantan2469]

Yes. The first trams were animal-drawn.

[@christinejackson3922]

Jonathan Tan thanks for that I always wondered as I couldn’t find any old photos or information. Do you know approximately when they were horse drawn

[@jonathantan2469]

@@christinejackson3922 It was before the cable trams were built in the 1880s. I think some of the lines remained horse-drawn into the early 20th century before being fully replaced by cable or electric ones.

[@johnd8892]

@@christinejackson3922 there was a horse drawn tram to the Royal Park Zoo until the Police strike of 1923 when rioters burnt the stables down.

[@Priyankar75]

Hello sir. This is Priyankar from Kolkata. I am in the management team of one of India's first attempt to make an exhibition on trams. We will be screening local, national and international short films and documentaries on trams and give the people a chance to relive the dying heritage of Kolkata. It would be great if we can have permission to screen this documentary the event. If you are interested, do get in touch with me at [e-mail] anytime before 2nd of May, 2016. Thank you. Link to the event page: facebook.com/events/1709574172648818/

[@horribleguts]

+Priyankar Patra please show the film. The exhibition sounds fabulous (I have just read a little about CTC). For more Melbourne tram resources you can try Culture Victoria, Heritage Victoria (where I got this) and Melbourne Museum. www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/built-environment/melbourne-trams-step-aboard/reminiscences-of-cable-trams-in-melbourne/

[@Priyankar75]

Thank you for the permission. The link was helpful too. Will keep you updated !

[@johnferguson4089]

What an interesting video. I always wondered how the cable trams worked. Many thanks to the late Neville Govett for having the foresight to film this in so much detail and superb quality. Thanks to Heritage Victoria for providing this video for sharing, it's much appreciated.

[@tfdruid]

A short section of track was discovered during roadworks in 2007. It's in North Melbourne, and runs along Abbotsford St between Spencer Street and the old engine house on Queensberry St. After the archaeologists did a survey of the site it was covered up again to preserve it, so all you can see is the median strip covered in wood chips, rather than the grass and street trees that were originally planned for it.